Moral judgments on the bombing of Nazi Germany

In his condemnation of area bombing (Bombing civilians is not only immoral, it's ineffective, March 26) in the second world war, AC Grayling overlooks two morally relevant facts in judging the morality of the allied bombing of Germany. Like Grayling, I am a philosopher. My father was a navigator in RAF Bomber Command and I often discussed these matters with him. But my objections are not anecdotal. The justification of the bombing as such is that between 1940 and 1944 it was the only way to strike back directly at an enemy which was attacking us (think of the Atlantic western approaches) and threatened the domination of wider Europe. Surely it would have been a colossal sin of omission (not to mention potentially fatal) to do nothing.

The justification of the area bombing is that until the last period of the war (and even then to a substantial degree) bombers were simply incapable of navigating accurately enough to find and pinpoint targets - in fact in the death traps that passed for bombers they were damned lucky to find the targeted city at night, let alone something in it. So, it was either saturation bombing or do nothing for four years. Now, how moral would doing nothing have been? Dr John ShandManchester

Grayling's article raises the question: "What are civilians?" The base of the logistics triangle in total war is manned by civilians. They, to my mind - and I served two tours with Bomber Command during the war - are as much fair game as teeth-armed troops in the front line who, after all, do not fire at the enemy's weapon if they can more easily take out the man holding it. The same analogy could be applied to Iraq and other places where war is carried out. Walter BraithwaiteSilsden

Unlike New Labour's war leaders, I have been subjected to civilian bombing. I survived the London blitz of 1940, although twice we had to move out of our bomb-damaged house. Then came the doodlebugs and V2s. Our home was flattened and my mother and brother dug out injured. I witnessed the death of neighbours. My father, an air-raid warden, would return home harrowed after digging out bodies. Yet I do not know one person who wanted to surrender to the enemy. AC Grayling is right. The slaughter of civilians by bombing is no more justified in Iraq than it was in Britain. Bob HolmanGlasgow

I fully agree that the US-led bombing campaign in Iraq is an act of total wickedness. Having said that, to decribe the Nazi blitz on Britain (60,000 killed) and V-rocket attacks (8,000 killed) as "small beer" is beyond belief. The war against Nazi Germany was a total war and one which we only just won. Tony Boylan Wigan, Lancs